A MAN OF HONOR; HERO WHO FOUND SUSPECT DECLINES OFFERS TO TELL STORY.

Byline: Lisa Van Proyen Daily News Staff Writer

Fascinated by Cesar Quintero's incredible story, tabloid magazines, a TV show and movie producers alike have offered him thousands of dollars.

They've told him that he's a hero because he was a murder suspect for a slaying he didn't commit - and then exonerated himself by finding the man whom police say is the real killer.

Yet Quintero has refused the offers, even though the money would nicely supplement the salary from his job changing oil at an auto shop. The 20-year-old Reseda man said he simply can't fathom benefiting financially from the sorrow of the victim's family.

``I don't want them to think I'm taking advantage of what happened to their son,'' Quintero said.

For this, the mother of the victim said she is grateful.

``I truly appreciate that,'' said Lorraine Redden, grieving for her son, Steve, 20, who was stabbed to death on Mother's Day. ``It's a tough thing right now.''

Redden said she hasn't met Quintero, but ``now I really have to see him to thank him.''

She said that she, too, has been offered movie deals through friends in the entertainment industry, but like Quintero, she refused. ``Hey, excuse me,'' she said she told them, ``I lost a 20-year-old son. Sorry, I'm not interested.''

``It's not worth it. I'll stay poor, because nothing is going to bring my son back,'' Redden said.

A miraculous tale

Quintero realizes why his story is so captivating. But he also can't forget the trauma he and his family endured while police investigated them until he found the man police say committed the slaying.

``I don't want to deal with it anymore. It really scares me even thinking about it - spending the rest of my life in jail,'' he said from his Reseda home recently.

The National Enquirer has offered him $3,000 if the tabloid could interview him and use his picture, Quintero said. The television news magazine show ``Extra'' also offered him a deal, as well as various talk shows, Quintero said.

But he turned them all down.

Los Angeles police Detective Ron Vega, the main investigator on the case, said movie and TV producers have contacted him for rights to the story. But Vega said it's Quintero's prerogative to turn down offers, and he will honor it as well and not take the money.

``He's got to deal with it. It's his way of dealing with it,'' Vega said. ``You want both, the right and left arm. If he's not going to go for it, then I'm not.''

Vega said the fact that Quintero exonerated himself by finding the man who ended up charged with murder is no less than ``divine intervention.''

Once a suspect

At one time, Vega and detectives believed Quintero was responsible for the slaying. They said he fit eyewitness descriptions of the man who killed Redden in North Hollywood.

Quintero became the focus of a grueling investigation that included his cousin, Rogelio Galindo. Detectives searched Quintero's home and put him at the top of their suspect list in mid-June but couldn't muster enough evidence to arrest him, let alone seek charges.

One day in June, Quintero was working at an oil-change shop when in drove a red Fiero - just like the one identified at the scene of the stabbing and nearly identical to Quintero's. And then he saw the driver, a man Quintero said resembled him so much that he could have been his brother.

It was Edgar Adolfo Barrientos, 20. Quintero alerted the police, and now Barrientos is charged with murder. Barrientos has pleaded not guilty to the slaying and is due to appear in Van Nuys Superior Court on Friday for a pretrial hearing.

Honorable man

No matter how much money producers and editors offer Quintero, he cannot help thinking of the families affected by the deadly ordeal.

``I can understand their sorrow,'' Quintero said. ``I don't really care for that money. I don't think it's worth it,'' he said.

However, he said he'll take the $25,000 police reward that will likely be offered to him for turning in the real suspect. It is more than he earns in a year, he said.

``I consider it compensation for what I went through,'' said Quintero, adding that he plans to use the reward as tuition for an automotive engineering degree.

Vega has sent in an application recommending Quintero for the reward, which must be formally approved by the City Council.

And Quintero did grant an interview to ``LAPD Life on the Beat,'' a TV program that documents the workdays of officers on patrol. But he will not be paid for the interview, which is scheduled to air within the next few weeks, he said. Quintero said he agreed to the interview as a public service.

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PHOTO Composite mug of suspect